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Stop salaries till DA dues cleared: Punjab LoP Bajwa in House
Speaking in the House, Bajwa said that DA arrears are pending for nearly 7.5 lakh employees and pensioners in government departments, boards and corporations in the state, despite a court order for their release
Leader of Opposition (LoP) Partap Singh Bajwa on Friday suggested that the government should stop the salaries of the chief minister, LoP, ministers, MLAs, as well as IAS and IPS officers until the pending dearness allowance (DA) dues of government employees and pensioners in the state are cleared.
Speaking in the House, Bajwa said that DA arrears are pending for nearly 7.5 lakh employees and pensioners in government departments, boards and corporations in the state, despite a court order for their release. “Till the time their pending DA instalments are cleared by the state government, the salaries of the chief minister, mine, ministers, MLAs, IAS officers, and IPS officers should be stopped. We should do this for the employees. This will send a very good message,” he said during a discussion on an official resolution regarding an increase in the base wage rate for workers.
Bajwa said government employees had told him that they helped bring the AAP to power in 2022 and had high expectations from them. He also urged the government to hike the minimum monthly wage of workers, saying that it was significantly lower than in neighbouring Haryana. “We have a wage rate of ₹400 daily or ₹12,000 to ₹13,000 per month, whereas the same is ₹18,500 per month in Haryana,” he pointed out, requesting the state government to fix it at least ₹19,000 per month. The Congress leader also said that the Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Fund had a corpus of around ₹1,200 crore, which should be utilised for the welfare of registered construction workers. In response, the chief minister said that the registration of workers was very low. “You are very senior, with experience in the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, so assist us in enrolling workers because most construction workers come from Bihar and go back, while many local workers are not in the habit of getting themselves registered,” he said.
